SpaceX built a docking system from bicycle parts

    > To assemble what would become one of the most important parts of Elon Musk’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, the docking system that would attach it to the International Space Station, a couple of SpaceX engineers in 2013 purchased mountain bike shocks from an online cycling shop. They bought the rest of the parts from McMaster-Carr, a sort of Home Depot for industrial tools and materials and dubbed their creation the “McDocker."


    > NASA’s engineers were perplexed that SpaceX would even go through the trouble of building a docking system on its own. The space agency had been working to design one for more than a decade, in partnership with Boeing, and NASA had offered it to SpaceX for free. Docking with the space station was a perilous task, and NASA was confident its system would work safely. All SpaceX had to do was install it.

    > At other companies, such a thought would likely have been laughed at. A young engineer was going to improve on NASA’s design? Why even bother?

    > When their prototype was finished, Matthews and Western showed it to Mark Juncosa, one of Musk’s most trusted engineers. Unlike some at the company, who shied away from dealing with Musk directly, Juncosa was unafraid of the boss. He told Matthews this was something Musk would want to see and that they should go show him the prototype that instant. Without an appointment, they rolled the McDocker over to Musk’s cubicle and asked him to take a look.

    > Musk studied it intensely, pulling and pushing on the docking ring, while rubbing his chin. After just a few minutes, he said, “Yep, let’s do this.” There were no deliberations. No consultations with other engineers. No memos or meetings. Musk liked what he saw and simply made the decision to go.

    > NASA was incredulous that SpaceX was rejecting its soft capture design and attempting to build something on its own.

    > To be assigned to fly on SpaceX, then, was at best a dead end, many in the astronaut corps believed — because those astronauts would never fly. It might even be a death sentence —because if SpaceX did fly, the thinking was, “If they don’t kill you, you’ll be lucky,” Hurley said. “There were probably five people in the entire agency that thought we’d be successful.” SpaceX would treat you like cargo, Hurley was told. You’d be little more than a “biological payload.”